RIA Makes Weapons, Castings
The Rock Island Arsenal serves as an OEM to the military, and it maintains a metalcasting facility to help lend it the versatility it needs.
Shea Gibbs, Senior Editor
works on for the U.S. military is a mo- bile repair center. The arsenal produces 30-40 of the units per month, depend- ing on troop surge capacity. They make up about 20% of the facility’s business. Think of the units as being like your garage, only on wheels and “way bet-
O
ne of the four main pro- grams the Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) Joint Manu- facturing and Technology Center, Rock Island, Ill.,
ter,” said Randl Besse of the arsenal’s global business division. The repair centers contain a 5.5-ton
crane, cutting equipment, welding equipment and 600-700 hand tools. Running on a 35 kW generator, they are dropped into the fi eld of battle and from there can be used to fi x just about whatever the troops require. RIA’s in-house metalcasting facility works much the same way. “The RIA [metalcasting facility] is the
only [metalcaster] in the Department of the Army,” said Colonel Craig Cot- ter, the facility’s current commander. “It’s a gateway operation that gives us the opportunity to manufacture parts from casting through assembly with total control over the process, cost and delivery. We can deliver products from factory to foxhole in a short amount of time.”
According to Cotter, RIA’s casting plant can produce tiny parts for small
32
Metal casting Design anD purchasing
March/april 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60